I dropped off John 2 at Cemenco in Monrovia at 8:00am to accompany the flatbed truck driver back to the school site. We met our contact person, Schaacks, who informed us the cement had been loaded the night before and all they needed to do was load the 1/2″ and 1/4″ steel rebar. I departed… Continue reading Spoiled Cement Truck

Yesterday I opted to read home devotions instead of sweating through a 3 hour service. I sat in the screened guesthouse porch and enjoyed the church singing at St. Luke’s wafting across the Phebe compound…boy they can belt it out.  It was a lazy dew-laden Sunday morning with pancakes and fresh, juicy pineapple followed by… Continue reading Pressure on my heart

A brief update today… I met my new driver, John 2, at Iron Gate this morning and the day was off to a start with sand hauling.  I did some layout work for the bathroom plumbing and got toasted in the full sun today, despite the 30SPF that was reapplied after sweating. The big surprise… Continue reading This land is your land, this land is my land

Wow, 2 days have gone by again and no blog time! Thursday…Yesterday was a bit trying. I was exhausted after a small bump in the road occurred, but this time it had nothing to do with ruts in the highway.  Let’s start with the actual furrows in the freeway first.  Because Saah did not come to… Continue reading Jon 1 and John 2

I got out the door around 8am to head across town so I could “babysit” the Foton repair which wasn’t finished last night.  Ooops…let’s backtrack a bit to last night.  I walked over to Randall St. from the LCL compound (about 3 miles) and picked up some small supplies.  I stopped at the Forkpah apartment since… Continue reading Welcome Back Branches

The day started by joining the LCL staff for their morning devotions, greeting the group on behalf of Pastor Schultz and the other team members, and meeting people I had not yet seen due to the New Years weekend. Bishop’s wife, Linda, just dropped off their daughter, Yonger, to start grad school back in the US (coincidentally on… Continue reading Supply and Demand

I arrived safely at Roberts International Airport (ROB)–on time and ready to wait patiently at baggage claim. I feared the Rubbermaid plastic tote filled with tools and hardware may have busted open during the ever-so-gentle heaving by United Airlines luggage handlers, spilling its precious construction cargo around the bowels of the plane.  But, alas, it appeared — gliding through the slit… Continue reading Do. Or do not. There is no try.

I’m on my way back to Liberia, sitting in the Brussels airport awaiting my connection to Monrovia.  I just realized it was a rather unceremonious entry to 2016 as I slept 5 miles above the Atlantic. Looking forward to seeing my Liberian friends….and walls going up on the school and guesthouse. Happy New Year!

Let’s set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title on #GivingTuesday! PayPal wants December 1, 2015 to be the biggest day of online giving in history — and for Gbarnga Lutheran Mission Project to be a part of it. PayPal is aiming to set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for most money raised online for charity in 24 hours… Continue reading An Extra 1% Starting December 1st

I bid farewell to Saah (and baby FOTON) who got me to the airport at the proper Rossman 3-hour ahead of departure time schedule.  I made it through the health screening form, the thermal imaging camera, a nurse chatting disinterestedly on her cellphone while taking my temple temperature then applying an orange dot sticker on… Continue reading Waiting at Roberts International Airport